GANS announce debut album
GOOD FOR THE SOUL out 19th September on Strap Originals
Watch the video for new single ‘IT’S JUST LIFE’ HERE
UK touring + European festivals this summer
GANS | Photo credit: Benji Charles
Birmingham newcomers GANS are announcing the release of their debut album GOOD FOR THE SOUL, on September 19th via Peter Doherty’s Strap Originals label. Produced by Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, Amyl & The Sniffers, The Fall, Working Men’s Club), new single ‘IT’S JUST LIFE’ is out today and streaming everywhere now. It follows recent single ‘I THINK I LIKE YOU’ which landed on the BBC 6 Music playlist.
For GANS, a duo of borderless noise-makers with intensity at the core of what they do, it’s the world around them, and specifically their upbringing, that roots them in their sound. Growing up in working class areas of the Black Country to parents who worked in factories and mills has helped define an approach that seeks to merge uneasy realism with horizon-chasing escapism.
Across their upcoming debut album GOOD FOR THE SOUL, the band tackles subjects of acceptance, self-destruction, and body image. Informed by a shared love of painting, literature, and poetry in particular, GANS is where all of these concepts coalesce, in the hive-mind of songwriters Euan Woodman (drums, vocals) and Thomas Rhodes (bass, vocals). On new single ‘IT’S JUST LIFE’, the pair considers how the race to fulfil ourselves can become futile if we don’t confront the issues within us first.
Drummer and vocalist Euan Woodman expands: “IT’S JUST LIFE is about that feeling we all have – the eternal chase for the grass being greener on the other side. And it isn’t, no matter what we do it always comes back to the same old sh*t of living in our minds and having to deal with it all, no matter where we end up on the planet. That’s just life isn’t it.”
Continuing about the album, he says: “GOOD FOR THE SOUL was the ultimate journey for us. You have your entire life to write a debut record and this is ours. 24 years of life distilled through noises and vibrations. We went to the Welsh countryside in December 2024 to write the record. We hired a cottage for 10 days, armed ourselves with enough food, booze, weed and music to listen to that would keep us inspired, and we wrote about 15/16 songs. It was an idyllic place with a little brook flowing in the garden – all very Led Zeppelin.
We then took those songs to Ross Orton who had produced ‘IN TIME’ and ‘I THINK I LIKE YOU’ with us already.
We started recording with him in the first week of January 2025 so it was all super-fast. brand new songs we loved and Ross was great to work with, he inspired us and challenged us. He’s a bit of a nutter – but that’s kinda what we like, we like to be around interesting characters. After 3 weeks in Sheffield we had a record done.”
Pre-order GANS’ debut album GOOD FOR THE SOUL here.
Hear new single ‘IT’S JUST LIFE’ on streaming services here and share the video on YouTube below.
GANS live dates 2025
Tickets available here.
June 6th – Sonic Bloom Festival, Gloucester, UK
June 26th – Garage Mu Festival, Paris, FR
July 2nd – Metal In The Midlands, Town Hall, Birmingham, UK
July 3rd – Forum, Tunbridge Wells, UK
Jul 5th – The Horn, St Albans, UK
Jul 9th – Le Pub, Newport, UK
Jul 10th – Hallamshire Hotel, Sheffield, UK
Jul 11th – EBGBS, Liverpool, UK
Jul 16th – The Victoria Inn, Derby, UK
Jul 17th – Boileroom, Guildford, UK
July 19th – Rock Herk Festival, BE
Jul 23rd – The Cavern, Exeter, UK
Jul 24th – Heartbreakers, Southampton, UK
Jul 25th – Esquires, Bedford, UK
Aug 8th – Piece Hall, Halifax, UK %
Aug 14th – Route Du Rock Festival, St Malo, FR
Sep 9th – The Lexington, London, UK
% = Supporting The Libertines
GANS live dates 2026
Feb 13th – Waterfront, Norwich, UK ^
Feb 14th – Rock City, Nottingham, UK ^
Feb 15th – Digital, Newcastle, UK ^
Feb 18th – Stylus, Leeds, UK ^
Feb 19th – SWG3, Glasgow, UK ^
Feb 20th – New Century Hall, Manchester, UK ^
Feb 21st – O2 Institute, Birmingham, UK ^
Feb 24th – Electric, Bristol, UK ^
Feb 25th – 1865, Southampton, UK ^
Feb 27th – The Roundhouse, London, UK ^
^ = Supporting BIG SPECIAL
GANS tour poster
More about GANS and debut album GOOD FOR THE SOUL
GANS are Euan Woodman (drums, vocals) and Tom Rhodes (bass, vocals).
Growing up in working class areas of the Black Country to parents who worked in factories and mills has helped define how they approach GANS. As Rhodes puts it, “We both come from places where people get locked in by their surroundings – trapped by jobs and ambitions that go as far as getting married and settling down by the time you are 23. We knew we did not want that. We felt connected when we met and we had ambitions that lay beyond that world. We are fiercely proud of where we are from and we strongly believe in how we were raised. It’s just we have ambitions that are more Copacabana than Costa Del Dudley.”
Woodman would sit scribbling away in his books. Not only does he write poems, but he also paints. Some of his paintings are disturbing Francis Bacon-like images of animals dressed as humans. There’s a Goose smoking a cigarette. Ironically this is where the band got their name – GANS is “Goose” in German.
Woodman says, “I have to be creating, and I will do until I die. I know people say that, but I truly don’t know any other way, I don’t know what I’d do.” He is the main lyricist in GANS. His words reflect a sense of discomfort and unease with life.
GANS went away in November 2024 to Wales to a remote cottage to write their debut album GOOD FOR THE SOUL, a direct, honest, noisy, heartfelt collection of songs to reflect the times the band find themselves in. There are songs about electronic gadgets to improve your life (‘THIS PRODUCT’), ‘OH GEORGE’ tackles mental illness head on, and stories of “Little England” mentalities and the ghosts of Reform supporters shine through on ‘A FOOL’ and ‘IN TIME’.
GANS – Good For The Soul album artwork
GANS – GOOD FOR THE SOUL album tracklisting
1. A FOOL
2. IN TIME
3. IT’S JUST LIFE
4. NIGHTWALKING
5. FAR AND WIDE
6. EVERYTHING IN EXTREME
7. I THINK I LIKE YOU
8. THE KING’S HEAD
9. THIS PRODUCT
10. OH GEORGE
11. WELL DONE